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Open Source Software

"Open source software is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance (opensource.com)."

We are 88% open sourced right now. This is largely due to new work in newer areas of the organization. What we want to do is make sure all work with custom code is represented in an open environment over the next couple of years.

The good news is that we are leading the government by providing good policy, open sourced scripts (here & here) for inventory automation, and sharing as much as possible with OMB, agencies, and the public. This portion of our Open site is a place for us to tell our story and inform internal agency components the best way to open source their code. It also provides a place for external stakeholders to see some good examples and understand our policy providing insight into working with us.

We will continually update this page with our current efforts to move to 100% open source. Please explore—innovate, create, and make sure to give us your feedback.

Our current efforts (as of 4/25/17):

We are working with internal offices that develop custom code and explaining the M-16-21 and our responsibilities. This includes creating guidance for inventorying and for opening code.

We are spreading our knowledge of Open Source Software (OSS) when possible with recently being asked to share our policy with all CFO Act agencies. Agencies are considering our policy as they develop theirs.

We have been asked to share how we automated our code inventoryThis and this includes instructions for agencies and a script based on using the GitHub API. Our good friends at CFPB and Interior have asked a lot of good questions and used the script.

Our proposal was accepted and we are leading a government panel at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference in Austin on May 11th. We believe it is important to tell our story of practical policy development and code implementation.